BJP forms panel to review progress

Narinder Bragta, vice-president of Himachal BJP, who spearheaded the agitation for the early completion of widening of the 80-km Theog-Hatkoti road, today constituted an action committee to review the progress of the project.
Ravinder Chauhan, spokesman for the action committee,said the committee, comprising presidents and office-bearers of BJP Mandals of Shimla district, would give its report within 15 days and the same would be submitted to the Governor and the High Court.
Balbir Thakur, vice-president, state Kisan Morcha, would be the convenor of the committee. It would seek help of experts to prepare a detailed report with suggestions to speed up the work, he added.
The crucial road in the apple belt had been the bone of contention between the Congress and the BJP and both the parties had tried to draw political mileage from the project during the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

HP BJP seeks Guv's intervention for expediting road work

Himachal Pradesh BJP which launched a six-day 'padyatra' in the state, today submitted a memorandum to Governor Urmilla Singh, seeking her intervention for expediting work on Rohru-Theog road. 

The 'padyatra' headed by former horticulture minister Narinder Bragata concluded at Sanjauli yesterday and BJP workers later presented the memorandum to the secretary to the Governor today. 

The memorandum urged the Governor to direct the state government to constitute a task for expediting the work and set a time limit for completion of the project. 

It also urged the Governor to ask the government to complete the metalling and tarring of the five-meter wide road on priority basis and complete the remaining works on routine basis. 

 

 

Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Congress leader Rohit Thakur, who represents the Jubbal and Kotkhai assembly seat, has dubbed the 'padyatra' as "a political drama to divert the attention of the people from core issue of development".

Source: PTI

Eight houses reduced to ashes in Bareyon Kotkhai

Eight heavily timbered houses were gutted and nearly two dozen families were rendered homeless when a fire broke out in Bareyon village, 60 km from Shimla.

The houses were reduced to ashes as the blaze engulfed Bareyon village in Panog Gram Panchayat at Kotkhai, police said.

Some two dozen families were left shelterless, they said adding the total loss was estimated at Rs six crore.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Rohit Thakur, who represents the Kotkhai assembly constituency, directed the administration to provide immediate relief to the affected families.

24 families rendered homeless

Houses of Amok Justa, Sohan Lal Justa, Balbeer, Brijlal, Mahender, Ajay, Jagveer, Santram, Vidya Devi, Devender, Lekha, Thakur Sen, Sanjeev, Kailash, Ishwari Nand, Neeraj, Keshva Nand, Reeta, Gyan Singh, Chander Dutt, Baldev, Sandeep, Amit and Prem Singh affected in this fire incident.

Polls put road project back on track

State Highway 10 that passes through the apple heartland of Himachal and was a sensitive poll issue during assembly polls last year is still far from completion. While the previous BJP regime failed to ensure its completion, now, keeping in view the 2014 polls, Congress government in the state has fixed a deadline of December 15, 2015 to complete the road project.

The 80km road project, which has now become a bone of contention between BJP and Congress, was approved over five years ago. The project was awarded to Chinese government backed Longjian Road and Bridge Limited Company on February 22, 2008, and was slated to be completed by June 4, 2011. After the Chinese firm sought an extension, the previous BJP government set fresh deadline of June 20, 2012, but even after this the project remained incomplete. As the company failed to meet deadline, the government finally cancelled the contract.

Sources said that the state government in February this year had sent fresh tender documents to World Bank. In the revised documents, a proposal was made to complete the project in two phases. Sources said the first phase was of 48km stretch from Theog to Kharapathar, while the second phase was for a 32km stretch from Kharapathar to Rohru.

Officials said a fresh contract agreement was signed between project director Naresh Sharma and Director of C & C Constructions Ltd. R. N. Aggrawal in the presence of Andrew Vogle, independent contract supervision consultant for the World Bank-funded project in Shimla on November 19, 2013. "Codal formalities of both phases have been done and the company has been asked to mobilize resources by the first week of December," said an official.

According to officials, the entire work would take around 30 months to complete. "Efforts are on to complete the project by December 2015," officials added. The project cost has been worked out at Rs 323 crore.

Village Panchayat Names of Jubbal Kotkhai

Sr. No.	Zilla Panchayat	Intermediate Panchayat	Village Panchayat Code	Village Panchayat Name	Village Panchayat Name(Local Lang.)
1.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2781	ANTI	ANTI
2.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2782	BADHAL	BADHAL
3.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2783	BAG DUMEHAR	BAG DUMEHAR
4.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2784	BAGAHAR	BAGAHAR
5.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2785	BAGHI (ADHIYALA)	BAGHI (ADHIYALA)
6.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2786	BAKHOL	BAKHOL
7.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2788	BARTHATA	BARTHATA
8.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2787	BHOLAD	BHOLAD
9.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2789	DARKOTI	DARKOTI
10.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2790	DEVGARH	DEVGARH
11.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2791	DEVRI KHANETI	DEVRI KHANETI
12.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2792	DHAR	DHAR
13.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2793	GARAWAG	GARAWAG
14.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2794	GILTARI (BP)	GILTARI (BP)
15.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2795	GUMMA	GUMMA
16.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2796	HALAILA (PREMNAGAR)	HALAILA (PREMNAGAR)
17.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2797	HIMRI	HIMRI
18.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2798	JAIPIDI MATA (DEORA)	JAIPIDI MATA (DEORA)
19.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2799	JANOL(RAMNAGAR)	JANOL(RAMNAGAR)
20.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2800	JHAGTAN	JHAGTAN
21.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2801	JHALTA (BP)	JHALTA (BP)
22.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2802	KALBOG	KALBOG
23.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2803	KATHASU	KATHASU
24.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2806	KOTKAYANA	KOTKAYANA
25.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2807	KUDDU	KUDDU
26.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2805	KYARI	KYARI
27.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2804	KYARVI	KYARVI
28.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2808	MAHASU	MAHASU
29.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2809	MANDAL	MANDAL
30.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2810	MANDHOL	MANDHOL
31.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2811	NAGAN	NAGAN
32.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2812	NAKRADI	NAKRADI
33.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2813	NANDPUR	NANDPUR
34.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2814	PANDLI (KOTKHAI)	PANDLI (KOTKHAI)
35.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2815	PANDRANU	PANDRANU
36.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2816	PANOG	PANOG
37.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2817	PARALI	PARALI
38.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2818	PARALI (BADROONI)	PARALI (BADROONI)
39.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2819	PURAG	PURAG
40.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2820	RATNARI	RATNARI
41.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2821	RAWALA KYAR (MELATH)	RAWALA KYAR (MELATH)
42.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2822	RAWIN	RAWIN
43.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2824	SAWRA (SARASWATI NAGAR)	SAWRA (SARASWATI NAGAR)
44.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2823	SAYRI	SAYRI
45.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2825	SHILLI	SHILLI
46.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2826	SOLANG	SOLANG
47.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2827	THANA	THANA
48.	SHIMLA	JUBBAL KOTKHAI	2828	THAROLA	THAROLA

Apple prices crash in Himachal

The wholesale prices of apple and some other fruits in Himachal Pradesh and neighbouring States have been falling steeply.

The traders are blaming the farmers for creating a glut situation that has resulted in the fall in prices. Approximately 3.5 crore boxes, about 50 per cent of the crop, have arrived at various markets in the State, Chandigarh and Delhi.

A 20 kg box of top variety (Royal Delicious) apple that fetched a price of Rs.1,800 earlier is now being sold for only Rs.900-1,000 in Shimla.

Former State Horticulture Minister Narendra Bragta, who led a rally in the apple belt of Rohru and Kotkhai on Wednesday, has blamed the lifting of import duty on apple by the Congress Government for the falling prices.

The farmers also submitted a memorandum to the Governor on the bad plight of roads, increased transport tariffs, erratic power supply and shortage of labour in the apple producing areas of the State.

Via: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/apple-prices-crash-in-himachal/article5096206.ece